Judge Temporarily Blocks Iowa’s 6-Week Abortion Ban

A judge placed a temporary injunction on Iowa’s law banning women from having abortions if they are six weeks or further along in pregnancy Friday.

The injunction on Iowa’s six-week abortion ban, also called the “Fetal Heartbeat Bill” comes after Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and the Iowa Board of Medicine in an attempt to strike down Iowa’s newly passed law banning all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.

A heartbeat typically manifests at about six weeks into a pregnancy. The legislation also bans the sale of all fetal tissue in the state.

“Not only is this law blatantly unconstitutional — it’s extremely harmful to women,” a Planned Parenthood representative said, according to National Public Radio. “We’ve moved quickly to challenge this cruel and reckless law because it cannot be allowed to take effect,” ACLU Iowa legal director Rita Bettis said, according to The Associated Press. State lawyers have agreed to postpone the law’s implementation until the lawsuit’s conclusion.

South Carolina nearly passed a law banning all abortions except those performed in the case of rape, incest and to save the mother’s life, but the bill died in the state’s Senate. Louisiana also passed a law banning abortions after 15 weeks Thursday. No state limits abortion access as strictly as Iowa does.

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